The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Satellite television is increasing in popularity due to the ever-increasing amount of programming as well as the quality of programming. Programming includes standard national (CONUS) broadcasts, local or regional station broadcasts, on-demand content and interactive content. Interactive content is increasing in popularity.
Satellite television broadcast systems typically use several satellites. Each satellite has several transponders that receive signals from the ground and broadcast the signals to users. Each transponder is capable of providing a certain amount of content therethrough. That is, each transponder may provide a certain bit rate therethrough. Satellite capacity usage may vary throughout the course of a day and course of a week. It is beneficial to the satellite system operator to use as much capacity as possible. The on-demand system provided by DIRECTV® uses broadband capacity as well as satellite capacity to communicate content to users. Broadband content is more expensive per bit than satellite content. Therefore, maximizing the use of the satellite for providing users desired content is beneficial. With numerous channels and types of content, manually managing a broadcast system leads to a system that is susceptible to human error. Automating broadcast systems which provide a reliable system for scheduling is desirable for improving customer experience.